Wings | Andrew's RV-7 Build Log

Started Countersinking Right Main Spar

February 26, 2011

This work session was really the same as the last, but because I’m trying to log stuff in categories, I split them up.

I felt like I had a half hour left in me, so I grabbed my countersink cage and banged out some of the spar countersinks that need to be done before riveting the wing skins on. (Riveting the wing skins on is a long way off, but it was a nice little task I could knock off the list.)

A shot of the inboard countersinks.

Oops, looks like I missed 4 holes here. I’ll hit those tomorrow.

A shot of the outboard countersinks.

0.5 Hours.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Countersinking, spar | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Right Tank Work

February 26, 2011

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Oh man, I had a great day today.

I’ve been kind of slowly approaching the tanks on my project. I don’t have a lot of apprehension about tank sealant, but I want to close out a few things in other places before I venture too much further.

Nevertheless, I made some big parts (at one point I had a whole wing!), but of course, by the end of the night everything was disassembled. Having the tank assembled allowed me to do most of the prep work I needed to do.

At this point, if I want to, I could go back and finish the leading edge lights on the right leading edge and start actually putting the leading edge together permanently.

Of course, I could always go back and catch the left wing up to the right. But that would be BORING. (I’ll probably keep myself entertained with the leading edge and then go back to the left wing before setting up for tank sealing.

On to the pictures!

First thing, I bolted all of my right z-brackets to the main spar.

The girlfriend was napping, so instead of riveting the inboard nutplates to the spar, I just used some spar An365 nuts.

My best tool today was the 3/8″ power drive socket that came from a gift my girlfriend’s dad gave me.

I can’t imagine having done these by hand. 2 minutes versus 20 minutes, maybe?

I don't have a picture of the whole set, but it is a really nice Dewalt driver set.

Okay, with the z-brakets bolted to the spar, it’s now time to get the baffle in place with the tank skin.

Here's the baffle.

Then, I had an epiphany. A lot of people cleco the skin to the baffle, but then don’t really have a good way to clamp the tank assembly in place to accurately drill the inboard and outboard z-brackets. Some people try to clamp it really well, others will pad the tank assembly and try to use tie-down straps around the whole wing.

I read (and re-read) the instructions, and came across a step that simply says

Drill the spar attachment screw holes and the W-423 screw holes to final size using a #19 drill.

Well, I couldn’t find a reason not to do that now, so I grabbed my recently ordered #19 bits and got to work.

Here it is.

Then, I decided that I should just go ahead and dimple the holes. Can’t find a reason not to.

(Although now that I’m re-reading the manual, I see a statement in there that says to dimple the tank skins using a c-frame and a hammer. Oh well, I think the dimples look good.)

Here's s a dimple for a #8 screw.

And with a AN509-8R8 screw.

After that little test, I went ahead and finished the rest of the spar attach holes.

These should let me really solidify the tank in it's final position for all drilling. No messing around with tie-downs for me!

I cheated a little and didn’t assemble the middle ribs. I figured the two end ribs would be sufficient.

Things are looking big now. This is the top side.

And the bottom side.

Here’s a closeup of the #8 screws helping me align the tank.

This worked great.

There were a few places where things didn’t line up perfectly, but this difference (tank on the left, leading edge skin on the right) is less than 1/64″. I’ve way zoomed in on this next picture. I would call this basically perfect. Some careful edge finishing on the leading edge will line up these seams nicely.

I can’t even figure out how I would improve this if I wanted to, which I don’t.

Lining up pretty good. For reference, that is a 1/8" hole, and I think that step is about 1/10 of the hole. Multiplication tells me it's about 1/80." There's no way any of you will ever notice this on my plane.

Near the leading edge, the gap looks amazing. Remember, this is my macro setting on the camera. Those are all 1/8″ holes.

Great (lack of) gappage.

At the leading edge, I couldn’t figure out why I had a little step here. Again, this is really small, and I’m totally happy with it.

This small step is hardly noticeable.

So other builders will drill the inboard and outboard z-brackets (which requires removing the leading edge) then you have to remove the skin to get to the other z-bracket holes, then you have to re-install both the leading edge and the tank skin to drill the tank-to-leading-edge #19 holes.

Why not do them now? Everything is rock solid and perfectly aligned.

I first matchdrilled the #40 hole into the flange behind the prepunched holes, then I enlarged the hole to #21, then finally #19.

After that was all done, I moved on to the inboard z-bracket. Like everyone else, here’s a picture of me drilling the z-bracket holes.

I had to use the flash here because this side of the tank was in a little big of a shadow. (I bent the bit a little while drilling to make sure the hole was straight.

After drilling and adding a cleco (9 times), I had the inboard side done.

Wuhoo!

Then, I apparently took another picture of the whole wing because I was so excited.

It's so big (TWSS).

Then, I struggled for about 10 minutes trying to really gently pull the leading edge off without disrupting the tank alignment.

Turns out, the joint plate and leading edge inboard rib fit so well, the friction kept me from sliding it out.

I had to remove the inboard rib (and joint plate) from the leading edge to get it to come off.

Of course, Jack and Ginger are playing in the background.

Then, the same drilling drill (ha) on the outboard side of the tank.

One done.

Nine done.

Alright, let’s get the rest of these z-brackets drilled.

After removing the skin, I saw (bracket) metal underneath all of the baffle prepunched holes. That means I didn't reverse any of the brackets.

With my drill stop attached to my #40 bit, I drilled the 25 remaining holes.

It's nice to be at this point, I've been reading about this whole process on everyone else's build sites forever.

After pulling the ribs and baffle back off, I saw holes in all of my z-brackets.

Holes were right where they were supposed to be.

Don’t believe me? Here’s an example.

Notice how the holes are slightly off-center? This was exactly what I was expecting. See the “checkoway method” explanation on my previous post (about 1/3 the way down).

It feels good to see these holes exactly where I thought they would be.

Then, I deburred the holes I just drilled in the right z-brackets.

Z-bracket holes deburred.

That was about 3 hours worth of work. Great day, and the tank alignment was great.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Baffle, Checkoway, Ribs, skin, tank | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Riveted Nutplates On Right Wing Z-Brackets

February 22, 2011

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Well, nothing too exciting, except I got to bang* on some rivets.

* By “bang” I mean “squeeze.”

After the other night, I have 7 z-brackets that are matchdrilled to the spar. Six of those seven need nutplates on them.

I grabbed a cleco, a (sacrifical) nutplate, an AN3-4A bolt, and a handful of washers (so I don’t engage the locking portion of the nutplate).

Bolt with washers goes in the hole, nutplate on top, hand tighten in a reasonably aligned orientation, and drill one of the holes for the nutplate ears through the angle.

Then, add a cleco and drill the other side.

Easy as PIE.

See? Easy!

After completing the first three sets, I snapped this picture.

3 down, many to go.

I think it was…[thinking]…6 angles, three bolts each, 2 holes for each bolt…36 holes?.

After all was said and done, the sacrifical nutplate had been thoroughly abused.

I almost threw it away, but then decided to keep him in his own little container. I can't just throw away a nutplate that has served me that well!

I deburred the holes that won’t be countersunk, and moved on to countersinking. I thought about using oops rivets, but since this material is so thick, I went ahead and countersunk for a full-depth AN426AD3-4 rivet.

Guess what I found when I picked up my countersink cage?

IT WAS ALREADY SET FOR THE PROPER DEPTH! WUHOOOOO!

(It’s the little things in life that really matter.)

Anyway, here’s one hole done.

Looks okay here...let's try a rivet.

Perfect depth.

While I was countersinking, I went ahead and did the FRONT side of the spar, too. (The nutplates go on the back of the spar, the bolts for the inboard z-brackets are fed in from the front.)

The countersink on the far left isn't perfect, I need to revisit this before riveting. The cage prevented me from getting a good angle on it.

Then, back to the z-brackets for some riveting.

First one done.

Then, onto the rest. All clecoed up, ready for rivets (in the background).

R3-R7 read to go.

Then, after setting 36 rivets, I set them all back up on the spar. No bolts yet, though. I’ll save that for tomorrow.

You can see R1 (which fell over) through R6 here. R7 is hiding behind the leading edge.

It’s late, and I need to get inside to bed.

But first, I grabbed all the tank parts for the right tank and quickly mocked them up with no clecos in my cradles. That’s the baffle leaning up against the cradles in the foreground.

I'm actually looking forward to the tank. Kind of.

It was just over an hour, but not quite an hour and a half. I think I rounded down last time, so this time, I’m going to call it an hour and a half.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I had to drill one rivet out. Just plain old messed it up.

Until next time…

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Clecos, countersink, Deburr, tank | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Matchdrilled Right Tank Z-brackets

February 20, 2011

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Well, it’s been a little while since I was out in the garage banging away on the airplane.

I have a few things piling up on my list of things to do. Among others, I could have finished up the landing light install, moved on to the left wing rib preparation, etc., but I kind of felt like continuing on with the right wing.

Van’s says that you should do both of the (insert noun here) if you want to save time.

Well, I have time, and don’t need to rush through this.

That means, on to the fuel tanks. The first step is to start removing metal on the Z brackets that hold the tank to the front of the main spar.

Let’s see, here they are.

Labelled appropriately. I wonder why Van's underlined the label in blue...

Oh, I almost forgot! The ceremonial plans change!

(Triumphant music...)

Okay, so there is lot’s of talk about the Checkoway method and what that is, but no one really does a good job of explaining it. I’ll give it a shot, and try to give credit where credit is due.

Basically, Van’s wants you to:

Install the z-brackets (after some steps to get both sides of them drilled)
Cleco on the baffle (“back wall” of the tanks) to the z-brackets.
Cleco the skin to the baffle, then adjust fit as necessary by elongating holes in the baffle.
Remove the skin and cleco in the ribs.
Cleco the skin back on.
Remove the whole thing for matchdrilling off the wing.

The Checkoway method (from what I can tell, because I never actually made it to his site before he took it down…):

Drill only the aft side of the z-brackets, then bolt them in place.
Attach a clecoed tank into position
Drill the inboard baffle-to-z-bracket holes (doing this now, instead of before, ensures the tank is perfectly aligned.)
Remove the leading edge to drill the outboard baffle-to-z-bracket holes
Remove skin and ribs, leaving baffle in place.
Now finish baffle-to-z-bracket holes.

The Checkoway method basically has you wait until you ensure propoer tank alignment before starting to drill holes in the front flanges of the z-brackets. If you do it Vans’ way, you might misdrill a z-bracket, and it will throw off the whole tank alignment.

Anyway, many sites have kind of hinted at this stuff, but Ethan really spelled it out nicely, and I have to give him some credit.

Of course, I’m out in the garage, so iPhone saves the day.

Ooh, remind me to charge up tonight, looks like I'm a little low on electrons.

Okay, as part of this whole Checkoway method, one of the suggestions is to move the “centerline” (future drilling reference) of the z-bracket flanges to favor the type of fastener you’ll use later.

On the inboard-most bracket, you primarily use a socket to tighten or loosen bolts from the wing root. Hence, you should move the centerline (and resulting holes) AWAY from the web for better socket access.

On the other 6 brackets, the spar attachment is from the rear spar, so there are no access issues, but the front flange needs a blind rivet, so if you move the holes CLOSER to the web (allowing for enough room for the nutplate), then the whole thing slides over and there is more room for your blind rivet puller during final tank construction steps.

(I spent an hour in the garage tonight, and most of that time was just trying to wrap my head around this idea.)

Once I had it all sorted out, I laid (layed? Emily, which one is it?) the z-brackets out and started marking them with really obvious arrows.

Right wing inboard one gets moved AWAY from the web, second one is moved CLOSER to the web.

After some really precise (HA!) line drawing. I finally used my center punch to mark a good starting point for my #12 drill. (#12, because that’s the holes size for AN3 bolts.)

Punched.

Inboard bracket drilled.

Second one drilled.

After drilling the second one (actually, I checked before drilling, but didn’t snap a picture till after), I held a nutplate over the hole to make sure I didn’t get too close.

Looks good.

Then, I needed to bolt these in position to drill the other 2 (of 3) holes. I spent a few minutes removing the lower inboard right wing skin and laid (Emily!!) the brackets in position.

I love working on the airplane. Therapy for the soul.

Okay, I have my centerline and a hole. Let’s bolt them up. (I added tape and a washer for spar-protection.)

Centerline through both holes...

Everything was going fine until I got to the inboard bracket. This doubler prevented me from getting it snugged up.

Bummer.

So, I just moved it to the top side, knowing I’ll have to backdrill from underneath. No biggie.

See, worked great. (You can see I used sacrificial nutplates, instead of regular nuts...easier to tighten since once you get it started you don't have to hold the nut.)

Back to the outboard brackets…

I’d drill the top hole, stick an AN3 bolt in, then drill the bottom hole.

Wuhoo! I love making aluminum shavings.

After all 7 were matchdrilled. I headed inside.

Good progress today.

1 hour. It was basically 45 minutes of staring at the plans, the instructions, and other builders’ sites, then 15 minutes of marking and drilling.

With the start of the tanks, I need to start thinking about ordering some Black Death (Proseal (tank sealant). I used this stuff on the rudder, and it really wasn’t that bad. I’m just calling it Black Death to be funny…or at least conformist.)

I can’t decide if I’m going to order the quart, or a whole bunch of the smaller tubes, which are easier to work with, but more expensive.

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1 Comment | Wings | Tagged: drill, Shavings, Sites, skin, Tanks, Wing, Z-Brackets | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Finished Matchdrilling Right Wing

February 12, 2011

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As far as YOU’RE concerned, it was a pretty boring night in the shop.

All I did was move about 500 clecos one hole over and then matchdrill the remaining holes in the right wing bottom skin. No big deal, but now the whole right wing is done being matchdrilled.

Per the instructions, I can remove the bottom skins and get to work on the tank.

Instead, I’m going to get back to work on the left wing, and then get to work on both tanks at the same time.

Because of all the pictures in the last post, I’ve decided to go easy on the repetitive picture thing.

This time, everyone who is reading is rewarded with this:

Jack and Ginger, walking each other down the street.

Half an hour.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Ginger, Jack | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Started Matchdrilling Right Wing

February 8, 2011

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Well, after 50% clecoing the right wing yesterday, I finally broke out the plumb bobs and measured my wing twist again. It was within a millimeter (sorry, I could only find my metric rule tonight).

After a quick celebration dance (I must have misplaced the video of the dance, sorry), I fired up the air compressor and put a drillstop on my #40 bit.

First, I matchdrilled every other hole on the top side of the right wing, then moved all of the clecos over one hole and matchdrilled the remaining holes. Keep in mind that I have about 600 clecoes, 500 of which are in the right wing right now. That’s a lot of drilling and cleco-moving.

I then moved to the bottom side and drilled all of the open holes, then started moving clecos, and got tired. Later this week, I have to finish moving clecoes on the bottom side of the right wing and matchdrill the remaining holes.

To help you understand how tedious it is to move all of these clecos, I’ll leave you with the following pictures.

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1.0 hours.

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1 Comment | Wings | Tagged: cleco, dancing, drillstop, matchdrilling, Wing | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

50% Clecoed Right Wing Skins

February 7, 2011

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Well, my order of clecos showed up. It was in a pretty small box on the front step, but that little tiny box was deceptively heavy.

After unpacking the box, I noticed that this bag is a bag of 500 clecos.

They actually opened the bag and removed 100 clecos to get to my order of 400. I wish I had known, I would have ordered another 100 just to save them the trouble of counting them all out.

Bag o' clecos!

Anyway, I emptied them into my (now empty) silver cleco bin (an old tupperware container).

I even left the automatic flash on so they would shine a little extra for you.

These things are brand-spanking new. And made in the USA.

U.S.A!

Some people on the forums were pointinng out that I got a heck of a good deal at $0.35 each, and they suspected they were not going to be the new, USA-made clecos.

Well, these are new.

This next picture shows a few of my different kinds of clecos. From left to right:

1) Clekolok USA, new today (from Innovative Tool Supply)
2) Kwik lok USA, purchased about a year ago (from the Yard)
3) Kwik lok USA, purchased about a year ago (from the Yard’s used bulk area)
4) Unknown, purchased about a year ago (from the Yard’s used bulk area)

New to old, they all work the same. I haven't noticed any degradation of holding power.

Anyway, I then spent the next half hour sticking these new clecos into my right wing.

Based on a conversation with Bill Repucci, I’ve decided to mitigate all of my alignment concerns by just 50% clecoing the wing. (50% meaning every other hole, as opposed to 25%, which would be the Van’s suggested everth fourth hole.)

I have to admit, that thing is rock solid now.

The right top skins with a cleco in every other hole.

I looked at my new cleco stash and realized I was about halfway through them already.

Crap... those went fast.

After another half hour of every other hole clecoing the right bottom skins, I reached in my cleco bucket and only had two clecoes left.

Uh oh.

Darnit.

I almost made it with 600 clecos.

There are a few missing clecos along the rear spar (towards the bottom of the picture).

When I get to that area during matchdrilling. I’ll just move some of my clecos from other areas.

1 hour of clecoing fun.

Contrary to what other builders have to say, my hand isn’t that tired, and I therefore don’t intend on spending $200 for a pneumatic cleco runner. Take that!
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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Clecos, skins, Van's, Wing | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Clecoed Bottom Skins and Leading Edge on Right Wing

January 31, 2011

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Oh man, what a great day!!

After some good advice to stop worrying about the wing twist too much (“you’ve got a pre-punched kit, it’ll work out”), I got started on some of the next tasks on the right wing. First, I clecoed on the right top skins, and then grabbed the right leading edge and sat it on the main spar.

Looks like a wing!

Oh wait. One of the next steps is to trace some lines on the lower skins (forgot those) that intersect at the tiedown hole so I can transfer those lines to the leading edge so I can verify that the leading edge prepunched hole for the tiedown is correct. I haven’t attached the tiedowns yet, so I went searching for the hardware.

Apparently you need an AN3-7A bolt, a couple AN960-10 (and L) washers, and an AN365-1032 nut.

I couldn’t figure out which washer (skinny or fat) goes on which side of the spar, so I looked at the tiedown area of one of the drawings (can’t remember which one.)

First, though, I have to finally sort out which washer …-10 or …-10L is the skinny one. Turns out, I should remember that “L” means “lean” (not really, but that’s how I’ll remember it.

AN960 Flat Washers
Bolt Size	OD	Thickness	Part No.
#10	0.438″	0.063″	AN960-10
#10	0.437″	0.032″	AN960-10L

Anyway, I hope that having looked that up now, I’ll remember which is which.

Okay. Looks like the -10L washers go on the bolt head side of the AN3-7A bolts.

Then, I realized that I don’t really need to tighten these things up. I’ve got some work to do in the future on the bellcrank brackets and bushings, etc., so I really just need to set these in place.

After putting the four bolts through the tiedown and clecoing on the bottom skins, I've got this.

Next, they want you to draw a few lines on the bottom skin that intersect at the tiedown hole.

You can just barely see my lines on either side of the access hole.

Next, I slapped the leading edge into place (but first had to notch my angles…bummer).

I only had to notch very slightly. Still very annoying to me.

After starting (pronounced “attempting”) to cleco on the leading edge, I realized I am going to need some mechanical advantage to snug everything up so I don’t have to use the clecos to pry things into place (a big no-no).

I got out a few 2x4 scraps and placed them against the rear spar. (This is so the straps don't put any pressure on the aft end of the skins.)

Strapped! (Not very much, just enough to act as a third hand while clecoing.)

After a good 30 minutes of the most difficult clecoing on the project, I had the leading edge nice and secured to the right wing.

Notice the amount (lots) of clecos on the aft part of the leading edge.

I think this is just a picture of the bottom side of the right wing.

Then, I extended my lines back onto the leading edge.

The intersection of the lines is sooooooo close.

I didn’t really believe I was off a little (although this is normal), so I grabbed this picture from the inside. (Depending on how precisely you place the tiedowns when you measure and drill them to the spars, you’re hole may be off here.)

That little tiny light is so close to the center of the tiedown hole, I'm going to start there, and file a little bit in one direction if I have to adjust.

Anyway, I decided I don’t want to start on drilling the skins to the skeleton until I do some more clecoing. I’m going to break down and just order like 400 more clecos before drilling. It can’t hurt to cleco every other hole (Van’s suggests every 4th hole before drilling)…things will only be lined up better, and since I’m already worried about twist, this will help me sleep at night.

A quick survey of tool joints yields the following for 3/32″ spring cleco prices.

3/32″ Spring Cleco Prices
Source	Price per Cleco
Aircraft Spruce	$0.43, plus shipping
Avery Tools	$0.42, free shipping >$95
Brown Tools	$0.44, 0.42 if >100, free shipping >$95
Cleveland Tools	Website is not working…
Vans Aircraft	$0.40, plus shipping
The Yard Store	$0.40, free shipping >$100.
PlaneTools.com	$0.79…WHAT?!!
Aircraft Tool Supply	$0.49, plus shipping.
Innovative Tooling Services	$0.35, free shipping >$100

UPDATE: Just found Innovative Tooling. The picture on the page for 3/32″ doesn’t show a silver cleco, but I’m assuming they just used the same picture. Just placed my order, we’ll see how they are when they arrive.

OLD: Looks like the yard store wins…they used to have bulk used clecos in 3/32″ size, but I called today and they are out. I’ll have to order new clecos, but bummer they are still $0.40 each. (By the way, who gets off selling clecos for $0.79 each?)

Anyway, I”ll order some tomorrow. One last picture of the WING! that’s in my garage tonight.

This makes me happy.

1.5 GLORIOUS, PRODUCTIVE hours. Night’s like tonight make all the other crappy nights worth it.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Clecos, Leading edge, skins, spars, strap, tiedown | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Continuing to Level Right Wing Skeleton

January 30, 2011

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Well, I keep chugging along on this right wing skeleton.

Except by “chugging,” I really mean “don’t seem to be making any progress.”

First thing, I wanted to free up one of my clamps, so I drilled and bolted the outboard rib’s special angle to the support of my wing stands.

Here’s my first mistake. I was really careful to line everything up the first time so I wouldn’t have to notch the support angle to accomodate the skins (which overhang the spar end). I didn’t remember this on this go around, so now that they are bolted in, I’m going to have to notch the supports.

No big deal, but just annoying that I forgot.

A couple of 1/4" bolts will do just fine here.

Unlike everyone’s very pretty lower outboard support, I made an ugly one.

See? More ugly. (Functional, though).

After getting it clamped to the rear spar, I used my air drill and a 3/8″ bit to drill a hole for a 3/8″ bolt.

I'm not sure why I took this picture.

Here’s the inboard rear spar support.

Inboard rear spar support.

And the outboard rear spar support.

I'm using the clever clamping trick that many builders before me have used.

Then I spent some time leveling the spar to 0.0°. After that, I dropped some plumb bob’s and carefully measured from the plumb bob string to the top of the rear spar. The outboard side showed 2 1/4″, and the inboard side showed 2 3/4″. A half inch of twist doesn’t sound like a lot, but of course I wanted this to be perfect.

I chose to split the difference. I pulled the outboard edge of the rear spar down (aircraft axes) and clamped, then pushed the inboard side up and clamped.

Here’s my problem. It seemed like I really had to push the spar to get it exactly where I wanted it, and there was plenty of (what I’ll call) springback force.

After clamping the rear spar in place, I remeasured the spar, and it was now no longer square. (Of course, moving the spar edges moves the ribs, which twists the main spar.)

I releveled the main spar and really tightened up the clamps. I’m now level with the main spar and within 1/32″ on the rear spar.

I’m sure I can get it even closer, but I’m worried about how much force I’m holding with the clamps.

Here's a picture of just the skeleton, squared up within 1/32" (I want to improve this).

To see if I was close with the skins, I clecoed them on. They fit great.

Another picture with the skins clecoed on.

Anyone have any thoughts? Have any other builders seen a lot of force required to straighten the wings?

Jan 31st update:

Oh man, I love the forums. bkthomps had the following to say:

did you put skins on yet? you’re on the prepunched kit like i am, the twist thing is a null issue- once you cleco both sets of skins on, it will be dead on, other than the slant of your stands/garage floor.

and

I followed jamie painter’s blog and decided not to spend countless hours with the lasers/bobs/etc that I had and I just built the wings doing only the basic level checks and a string down the spar length to get rid of the droop, after finishing them, they are dead level in every dimension, if that helps w/ encouragement.

1.5 frustrating hours. (After talking with bkthomps, I am much happier. I’ll push on now and verify straightness after clecoing both sets of skins on. Wuhoo!)

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: clamps, cleco, level, skins, Wings | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Started Leveling Right Wing for Good

January 25, 2011

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Well, tonight was kind of crappy. I started leveling the wings and ended up undoing all the work I did last time (clecoing on the skins felt productive!).

First, I set up my two new plumb bobs with some string.

Exciting picture, huh.

Then, I hung the plumb bobs and realized that with the skins clecoed to the wing, I wasn’t going to be able to easily clamp the skeleton into perfect alignment. Instead of messing with it, I quickly made the decision to backtrack and get to a bare wing skeleton for alignment adjusting.

After pulling off the skins, I played a little with my adjustable stands and realized I’m going to need my lower braces before going any further.

I cut two 8-inch pieces of angle to use for the lower braces. One of these will need an additional piece of aluminum before clamping to the outboard rib.

I didn’t have time to mount up my angles, so all I did before going inside was to more accurately measure the wing twist.